Would you have your holiday snaps enhanced?

Every week Cosmopolitan.co.uk's very own Venus & Mars give their take on the most talked about love, sex and relationships stories. See where the his 'n' hers views clash, collide and occasionally complement each other

Holidaymakers are clamouring to have their holiday snaps touched up and now there's even a 'female friendly' camera to make you look skinnier. But should you?

MARS

Oh, the temptation to tweak!

I have to admit that whenever I check my photos back for anything wrong in the picture, the anything that's wrong is usually me. So the thought that I could make it all better with a spot of photo-shopping is very tempting indeed.

There are so many snap catastrophes I could correct. The hair that's gone from carefully sculpted quiff to fly away random tangle. The profile that I imagined as noble Roman emperor but from this angle looks more like slightly fretful dodo. That non-existent six pack.

How great it would be to wipe out all these imperfections and instead gaze upon a vision of oneself holidaying in Cornwall or partying in Ibiza with the abs of the Andre and the eyes of the Clooney. But what's the point?

The thing is photos are your memories - of good times and bad. What memories can possibly be stirred if the person staring back at you isn't really you.

Thanks to some hardworking boffins in Siena there is now software that draws on a database of stars like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and the Cloonmeister to enhance your features further. It's bad enough that half these stars have already had cosmetic surgery to give themselves the regulation perfect nose, cheekbones or dimple. Now we want to follow in their footsteps and look every bit as plastic as them? Who are we kidding?

Of course when it comes to choice snaps for the online photo album we're all going to weed out a few horrors from the pack.

Yes, it may have been just an unfortunate camera angle that made one's arse look so huge that it completely obliterated the sun. And no, to be fair no one looks at their best after they've just been sick in their own lap.

But when it comes to buying a 'female friendly' camera which claims to reduce a woman's appearance by one dress size (by squeezing the central image in the pic without distorting the rest of it, now that you ask) it really is time to get a grip.

Covering your crimes is one thing, lying to your own (vague approximation of your) face is another altogether.

VENUS

Performing the daily 'dodgy pic' de-tagging ritual on your Facebook profile is a matter of self-preservation; permed fringes were never a good look (not even in 1986) and who the hell had the presence of mind at 2.30am to snap you vomiting out of that cab window, anyway?

Having your snaps digitally enhanced, on the other hand, is a matter for Trading Standards. It's a bit like using a picture of Heston Blumenthal's tasting menu to advertise Iceland's frozen party food selection.

Of course, the problem with false advertising is that you're inevitably going to get sprung. It's all very well if you can afford to take the picture into your local plastic surgeon on your way home from the airport and demand to look like that. But otherwise, what exactly are you expecting to achieve from this?

Do you suppose your friends are going to think, "Wow, check out that tiny waist". No at best they're going to think, "wow, you look like you've just spent two weeks on a stretching rack" or at worst, "I seriously need to consider de-friending this vain, deluded mentalist."

Why not save yourself the time and cash and simply hand around a few beach snaps of Cameron Diaz? Throw in a few of her surfing, too while you're at it. "Yes, that's me in the wetsuit, carving up the waves... um, yes, not bad for someone with a pathological fear of water, I know."

The only thing I find more shocking than the idea of people going to the trouble of having themselves digitally enhanced, is the idea of calling this mutating device a "female friendly" camera. Talk about sexist. I'm sure there are plenty of men out there who wouldn't say no to having a few inches shaved off their beer guts, too. In fact, if my experiences of online dating are anything to go by, the "man friendly" camera has already taken the country by storm.

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